Developers: Intel transition going better than expected

Nearly all of the Mac OS X developers surveyed by a Wall Street analyst at Apple's Word Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) last week said the company's Intel transition is going better than they had expected.

During the conference, PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster spent time talking with some 16 developers about their thoughts on the Intel transition now that they have a full year of the switch under their belt.

Intel Transition Favorable

According to Munster, 14 of the 14 developers who had ported an application from PowerPC to Universal Binary said that the process was easier than they had expected. Additionally, the analyst said 15 of the 16 developers believe the Intel transition will result in a greater number of Mac applications in the future.

"While there are some concerns from industry analysts that the Intel transition will negatively impact Mac application development, we believe our conversations point to the opposite conclusion," Munster said.

The analyst also asked the developers to share their thoughts on the Mac's newfound ability to run the Windows operating system, to which nearly 90 percent of the developers said the enhancement will positively impact Mac application development.

Leopard Seen as Impressive

Meanwhile, Munster said he was able to get his hands on a developers-only preview copy of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which he found impressive. "We tested the most significant new features including: Time Machine, a comprehensive file backup interface; Spaces, which virtualizes multiple desktop spaces; Mail 3.0; and Safari 3.0," he said. "After a week of testing the Leopard preview, we are impressed with the next generation operating system."

And while Apple offered no new details on Boot Camp during WWDC, it's Munster's belief that the final integration of the dual-booting software will have a significant impact on the company's ability to capture market share by winning Windows users. "As Boot Camp moves from beta to an official version in Leopard and the Windows installation becomes more user-friendly, increasing numbers of Windows users will switch to a Mac," he said.

Leopard to Trump Vista

In general, the Wall Street analyst believes Leopard will be seen by the masses as a superior product to Microsoft's Windows Vista upgrade, an advantage that should help boost the Mac maker's share of the personal computer market. Both operating system upgrades are due at relatively the same time, with Vista slated for "early 2007" and Leopard the "spring 2007."

"These releases are not necessarily a race to the finish, but we believe that Apple will work hard to ship Leopard before or close to the release of Vista," Munster added.

All that should matter is that it is released late enough for MS to not be able to copy it.

When it's hits the stores is irrelevant because win users can't purchase leopard and install it anyways. They can buy a new computer and leopard or they can wait a week or two and buy a computer with leopard on it.

Assume Apple ships Leopard a couple weeks *after* Vista goes out. It will be seen by many as a 'me-too', even if it has many technologies that predated Vista by years.

Assume Apple ships Leopard months ahead of Vista - then the Leopard hype has died down, and Vista will stand on its own.

The best approach is to release Leopard a few short weeks before Vista - get the MacOS X name on people's minds and keyboards, and then it will be an obvious *existing* comparison to Vista... you get to ride the coattails of MS's multi-gazillion $ ad campaign. "MS released Vista today.... seen as an answer to Apple's recently released MacOS X..."

I think they're going to release 10.5 within a month before Vista, just to get that comparison ready in people's heads.

Assume Apple ships Leopard a couple weeks *after* Vista goes out. It will be seen by many as a 'me-too', even if it has many technologies that predated Vista by years.

Assume Apple ships Leopard months ahead of Vista - then the Leopard hype has died down, and Vista will stand on its own.

The best approach is to release Leopard a few short weeks before Vista - get the MacOS X name on people's minds and keyboards, and then it will be an obvious *existing* comparison to Vista... you get to ride the coattails of MS's multi-gazillion $ ad campaign. "MS released Vista today.... seen as an answer to Apple's recently released MacOS X..."

I think they're going to release 10.5 within a month before Vista, just to get that comparison ready in people's heads.

Yeah... Id agree with that scenerio as well. Sounds like a good Apple marketing tactic. Plus it makes the most sense.

People that are intrigued or interested in a Mac but are familiar with windows can now try a Mac and still go back to Windows, therefore the risk is far lower.

If they like Mac OS X (which most of us will be confident they do, if they're not too scared by it looking different) then they will spend time in it.

Over time they'll buy Mac applications. Many will be happy. Some will not adapt and run screaming back to Windows and the familiar quirks and issues.

Windows will become that "software they use for games", until greater numbers of Mac users with acceptable graphics mean more ports or concurrent development. However Apple are traditionally tardy with the graphics, especially on the consumer models, so this won't be that quick.

Assume Apple ships Leopard a couple weeks *after* Vista goes out. It will be seen by many as a 'me-too', even if it has many technologies that predated Vista by years.

Assume Apple ships Leopard months ahead of Vista - then the Leopard hype has died down, and Vista will stand on its own.

The best approach is to release Leopard a few short weeks before Vista - get the MacOS X name on people's minds and keyboards, and then it will be an obvious *existing* comparison to Vista... you get to ride the coattails of MS's multi-gazillion $ ad campaign. "MS released Vista today.... seen as an answer to Apple's recently released MacOS X..."

I think they're going to release 10.5 within a month before Vista, just to get that comparison ready in people's heads.

I see what you're saying but the average consumer won't care or notice. yeah it's best to do it a couple of weeks before for the small percentage of consious people that might be paying attention but other than that as long as it's out before it's not a huge deal.

Everyone paying attention would already get the comparison. If Leopard were to drop in jan and vista in march it's pretty clear anyways.

But ultimate it doesn't matter that much because we have to assume everyone that would pay attention would be ready to buy a new computer at that time as well.

Plus, when Vista is released I'd think the cost of XP would go way down. So whether BootCamp supports Vista or not it might look even better to PC users considering switching as the cost could potentially be less for them.

I've shared the view that more developers will create software for OS X as a result of the switch to Intel processors. It's only when enterprise software vendors release OS X versions of their software will Apple's market share in the enterprise really take off.

I've shared the view that more developers will create software for OS X as a result of the switch to Intel processors. It's only when enterprise software vendors release OS X versions of their software will Apple's market share in the enterprise really take off.

Yes indeed. And even if switchers don't use OS X, there is yet another copy of OS X out there for the Mac developers to see in their "assessment of the market". Just like QuickTime gets installed on all of the iTunes PCs.

I'm going to call silly buggers on Piper Jaffray here. They polled a small number of developers, and presumably small developers since they would mention it if they were big names, and small developers on average are going to be more likely to have Cocoa apps, and smaller codebases. These folks just happen to be best case scenarios for the Intel transition (and it's not a dig on small devs either, small houses tend to make, on average, more interesting software).

Plus, when Vista is released I'd think the cost of XP would go way down. So whether BootCamp supports Vista or not it might look even better to PC users considering switching as the cost could potentially be less for them.

Retail copies of previous versions don't seem to go down so much until it's a few years out. I paid just as much for Windows 2000 as I could have paid to get Windows XP, this was post XP service pack 1.

remeber that 70% of the MSwindows users ore more dusnt know Leopard or osX (europe)

It's true that over here even less people have heard of "Vista" or "Mac OS X" than even in backstreet America. The tech media here are less of a presence and it really is assumed that every computer out there is a Windows PC. I just saw a general audience prime time TV show about the Nigerian personality theft industry, where the word Mac was not even mentioned once. But then again, neither was Windows! A computer is a computer as far as the masses are told to be concerned. You use them for pr0n and banking, and then you chuck them in the dump and pray some nice guy breaks up your hard disk elsewhere in the world, or more likely think nothing at all.

I don't watch quite enough TV to know for sure they haven't yet but Apple need to screen the Get a Mac ads here pronto. Get the very idea of a choice out there to the folks. Doesn't matter what they think of it at first. Just try to make it into a brand war like every other item they see in the ads. Mac ads are very rare events in Britain for some reason, and we're the lucky ones with a few Apple stores! (None closer than 200 miles to me though. )

I agree that Leopard should ride the Vista wave, and the tech media will make sure it does as they can't hold back from making the comparison. Fingers crossed MS will market Vista like they did 95 - which is still remembered by non-tech people over here they over did it so much! Computers sell by the truckload in Britain just as much as the US, but Macs have far less share. Apple need to open up to the fact there's a wide world out there to sell more than iPod's to. If the little player can do it, why not the Mac?

When 12% of laptops in the UK are MacBooks and MacBook Pros, Apple will have really hit the big time and turn the tide in the software market, games and all included. But even keeping an eye out in the Starbucks and other typical Mac enclaves, it's clearly nowhere near that yet. Come on Steve. Remember we're all here. Market!

Assume Apple ships Leopard a couple weeks *after* Vista goes out. It will be seen by many as a 'me-too', even if it has many technologies that predated Vista by years.

Assume Apple ships Leopard months ahead of Vista - then the Leopard hype has died down, and Vista will stand on its own.

The best approach is to release Leopard a few short weeks before Vista - get the MacOS X name on people's minds and keyboards, and then it will be an obvious *existing* comparison to Vista... you get to ride the coattails of MS's multi-gazillion $ ad campaign. "MS released Vista today.... seen as an answer to Apple's recently released MacOS X..."

I think they're going to release 10.5 within a month before Vista, just to get that comparison ready in people's heads.

And that's the real reason for secret features. It's not that MS might copy them, but that they will help cause a buzz that MS can't with Vista. When will Vista actually ship, anyway? If it really ships in January, could Apple be ready?

I think they're going to release 10.5 within a month before Vista, just to get that comparison ready in people's heads.

Everyone seems to agree with this assessment. I can't help but think that there would be some extra positive media buzz if Apple releases 10.5 earlier than expected. I imagine the comparisons to Vista being so delayed already.

I agree with what was said about BootCamp - Vista support will depend upon Apple, not M$.

Here's what I want out of BootCamp v1.0:

1. Allow me to launch Windoze by doubleclicking, not rebooting.

2. When going into Windoze, the screen should just go dark - when coming back into OS X, supress the chime.

3. As for the chime comment above, obviously this would only occur when I choose to restart out of Windoze, however it should then bring me back to the OS X state I was in when I left i.e., open apps/docs.

4. If I choose to shutdown out of Windoze then at least have saved all my open docs in OS X and make it typically Mac easy to figure out in the case of docs called 'untitled' etc.

5. Let me access OS X even from NTFS partitions when in Windoze.

I think this would set things apart in a positive way - otherwise Bootcamp is not user friendly and for those who know, just like any other dual boot solution that's been available to pc users for quite some time (IMHO). I don't really expect Windoze API's to run from within OS X but this reboot into Windoze could be improved on and really isn't the Apple solution I've come to expect.